Yoshi Island DS

Overview

Nintendo has been on a roll with their handheld device, which was initially dismissed as a mere gimmick, and now well on track to become the leading handheld gaming device on the market to date. The platform has done it not with over powering graphics or all of the nifty features that are jam packed in one device, but instead merely by a good price point and a fantastic lineup of games. Today we are checking out yet another title from Nintendo to try and continue Nintendo’s reign on the top of the handheld market, a market in which it has held since the Gameboy so many years ago. So how does there latest game Yoshi Island DS fair this holiday season? Read our full review to find out!

Gameplay

For those who remember back to the days of the SNES, you may remember one of the best games for the platform was surprisingly Yoshi Island. This was one of those games that if you played it you can really remember all the levels and all of the complexities that it brought along with it. It was really a very influential game that really hasn’t been recreated up until now. So now with the first sequel to this extremely popular and well loved game, we have Yoshi Island DS, a game with quite a bit of hype and a whole lot of expectations to live up to.

For those who liked the original game then you will be very happy to hear that this is a game that is accurately and even at sometimes too much based on the original game. You can see the developers did not want to go too far from the original format that did so well for the original. So whether you’re looking at the story, the visual style, or even the gameplay, you will see a game that is very familiar to what we saw in the original game, with some minor upgrades to use the DS’s capabilities and to just give some new content as well.

Much of the game’s mechanics are very familiar to what we saw in the original game, where you will use Yoshi’s ability to eat up enemies and spit them back out to your advantage. One thing that has been common in recent Nintendo games is the addition of baby characters, which are in Yoshi Island DS with not only Baby Mario, but Peach, Wario, Bowser, and Donkey Kong. The addition of these characters definitely gives the game more variety, and thus brings a much welcomed depth to it as well. This does also help keep things fresh and entertaining.

Similar to what we found in New Super Mario Bros., this is a game that does crank up the difficulty level a bit later on in the game. So you can expect a bit of a challenge when your getting into the later rounds of the game and you can expect to really enjoy it as well. The dual screen doesn’t add a whole lot to the experience, except for more space, but it works nonetheless and doesn’t necessarily hinder the experience either.

Yoshi Island DS is not a game that will knock your socks off, but at the same time it is a game that has all of the makings of another solid playing Nintendo title. If there is one thing that Nintendo has perfected over the years it is 2D platformers, which are once again revisited with great success here in Yoshi Islands DS.

Graphics

For those who have played any DS Platformer from Nintendo, you can already guess what to expect from the visuals of the game. Just like in any of those games you have very bright, very vibrant colors that are really keen to attract the eye. Everything about this game really just manages to pop out at you and really does a nice job of it. The game continues to look good from start to finish, although don’t expect anything to really impress beyond a certain measure as we have seen this all done before.

Fun Factor

This is really an extremely enjoyable experience and one that I believe anyone who enjoyed the original will really enjoy this game. The amount of new content isn’t all that overwhelming, although what the game does manage to do is keep the elements that made the original great and recreate them in this experience which is once again a fun game to go through. Yoshi Island DS has once again all of the makings of a game that any owner of the DS would really have a good time going through.

Overall

In the end, this is really a fantastic game that manages to stay with what worked in the original but still coming out with a great game. The reason for the eight out of ten is merely because this is more or less the same game with a few minor tweaks. Although it is extremely enjoyable and nice to look at, the developers still had room to grow further. Anyone who enjoys platformers and owns a DS would be foolish not to go out and pick up this game.

Joel Szerlip

The owner and editor-in-chief of Darkstation.com. I've been apart of the website since 2002 and purchased the website in 2010. Owning and running Darkstation is a dream come true. I love video games and I love writing and talking about them even more.

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